>be me,

not a minor/trans man/ audiodrama fan, vtm enjoyer, reading homestuck in the big '25

[memewhore]

[bananahomo]

I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.

dude.

$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.

[anotherfngrl]

For anyone who needs it

[susandsnell]

reuploaded bc ykw i'm fed up. fandom misogyny bingo

[kandoros]

The Dead Take the A Train, by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Julie Crews is a combat exorcist; think early Harry Dresden but a lot more down on her luck. She's perpetually behind on rent (but her landlady who might be some kind of goddess gives her time to catch up), she takes way too many drugs (but she's got superhero metabolism enough that it's not a big problem), and her life is just generally going nowhere. And that's before you factor in the low life expectancy of the job.

Her ex works for Wolfram & Hart, and badmouthed her around town after their breakup to the point where she finds it hard to get work now, which doesn't help things.

And then her old high school crush Sarah shows up at her door, fleeing from an abusive husband. Julie gets the idea of summoning a guardian angel to give her life a bit of protection, but it turns out the spellbook she used was a fake her ex had made to fuck with her ...

It's an entertaining read, which manages to avoid one of the flaws of the other Kadrey series I've read, Sandman Slim. The main character in that one seems to always have god mode enabled and while he might get beat up, there's never a lot of suspense that eventually he'll come out on top.

Julie & Sarah trying to survive is a good story all on it's own, but the side characters really make this book work. St. Joan the landlady who is some flavor of immortal, Dead Boy the friend who is a follower of the gods of the internet, Billy Starkweather the cursed bookshop proprietor, the assorted lawyers and demons of the ex's firm - they're pretty much all have stories you want to learn more about.

I've enjoyed Kadrey's stuff before, and this one was more than good enough to add Cassandra Khaw to my list to watch out for. Wikipedia says they have some anthologies based on Southeast Asian urban legends I'm going to try and hunt down.

This year's list so far, in order of enjoyment:

The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart Dead Silence, S. A. Barnes Bookshops and Bonedust, Travis Baldree The Necrobane, Daniel Ford The Dead Take the A Train, Richard Kadrey & Cassandra Khaw The Warden, Daniel Ford Ghost Station, S. A. Barnes Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie Nuts and Bolts, Roma Agrawal Galaxy, Thirty Years of Innovative Science Fiction, anthology The Warehouse, Rob Hart

[ceaselessims]

just finished reading Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by anaïs flogny and tell me why every kayne malevolent character design is in this story

like that's literally kayne

[charlemane]

writing tip: searching "[place of origin]ish names" will get you a lot of stuff and nonsense made up by baby bloggers.

searching "[place] census [year]" will get you lists of real names of real people who lived in that place.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

I feel like I'm constantly shilling for them but BehindTheName.com, the only baby name site that doesn't feel like it's run by mommy bloggers, includes census-based graphs for dozens of countries/regions (though not all of them go back very far yet)

And you can expand them to see rank, number of babies, and percentage of babies and add a second name to compare. (in 1973 four percent of babies were named Jennifer! 1 in 25!!!)

Also this. Cursed.

[emperorsfoot]

@homoqueerjewhobbit what name did you search for your example, and what's going on with Moldova?

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Those are the graphs for Samuel. They only have 1 year's data for Moldova right now, so that's why it's a straight line. Similarly, they only have 2 years for Mexico right now. The US goes back to 1880. I'm not sure how much of that is publicly available/translated records and how much of it is that it's like 1 or 2 guys maintaining a website of 27000 names and a finite amount of time to format and upload.

Here's the list of all of the countries/regions they have popularity statistics for if you want to nerd out on it!

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

You can't advertise BehindTheName for writers without mentioning the advanced search! You can search names based on cultural origin and usage, gender (including unisex), meaning, and even things like meter and number of syllables, or famous namesakes (you can also see a list of famous namesakes on every name's page, along with meaning, history, related names, alternate spellings in different languages, the above popularity graphs, and more).

I wouldn't even call BehindTheName a baby name site. They have a surname sister site and a random name generator with tons of variables to set that is very clearly intended to be used for fictional characters (iirc it can even generate a cause of death? I haven't looked at it in many years so it might have changed but these things predate generative AI so unless it's been forcefully enshittified it shouldn't be slop). Like, you can use it for baby names, but the website isn't explicitly intended for that purpose. This website caters to us.

[socialmurderer]

Considering reading You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White? Here’s a few tips:

1. Accept that YWMTBH has nothing to offer in terms of horror or plot details, and that it will only be able to offer shock value rape fetish content instead of the alien horror novel you presumably came looking for.

2. Put YWMTBH down.

3. Pick up Herculine by Grace Byron, which takes almost every aspect of an AJW book (trans protagonist, cult setting, forced pregnancy, supernatural antagonists etc) and actually addresses them in a way that is both plot consistent and not blatantly fetishizing or glossing over the trauma of any of the horrific things involved.

[theprettytransboy]

A collection of YouTube playlists for Bistro Huddy fans who want to speedrun the lore (public videos only):

🎄Rubycole Playlist🎄

💸Trickette Playlist💸

💎Ruby Playlist💎

[gaynehollander]

I'm actually not done talking about Shane playing Never Have I Ever. On several occasions one of the Centaurs says something Shane's never heard of before, and when he asks what it is Ilya shakes his head and says, "just drink."

[croxovergoddess]

Fuck it

After years of selling it, Here is my zipfolder that contains all of my old reference folders

(not including what's in my ko-fi shop)

[croxovergoddess]

It's in my Ko-fi shop for free, too💛

[randomly-generated-posts-machine]

in the skull emoji civilization no one jumps for the Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis it's much easier to do the one block jump for the Jade Harley

[sylvanwhispers]

hey fellas is it gay for you and your enemy to stare into each others’ souls and be forever haunted by the uncomfortable intimacy you now permanently share?

[kurzler]

a quick psa to anyone recently getting into greek mythology and is a victim of tumblr and/or tiktok misconceptions:

-there is no shame in being introduced to mytholgy from something like percy jackson, epic the musical or anything like that, but keep in mind that actual myths are going to be VERY different from modern retellings

-the myth of medusa you probably know (her being a victim of poseidon and being cursed by athena) isn't 100% accurate to GREEK mythology (look up ovid)

-there is no version of persephone's abduction in which persephone willingly stays with hades, that's a tumblr invention (look up homeric hymn to demeter)

-as much as i would like it, no, cerberus' name does not mean "spot" (probably a misunderstanding from this wikipedia article)

-zeus isn't the only god who does terrible things to women, your fav male god probably has done the same

-on that note, your fav greek hero has probably done some heinous shit as well

-gods are more complicated than simply being "god of [insert thing]", many titles overlap between gods and some may even change depending on where they were worshipped

-also, apollo and artemis being the gods of the sun and the moon isn't 100% accurate, their main aspects as deities originally were music and the hunt

-titans and gods aren't two wholly different concepts, titan is just the word used to decribe the generation of gods before the olympians

-hector isn't the villain some people make him out to be

-hephaestus WAS married to aphrodite. they divorced. yes, divorce was a thing in ancient greece. hephaestus' wife is aglaia

-ancient greek society didn't have the same concepts of sexuality that we have now, it's incorrect to describe virgin goddesses like artemis and athena as lesbians, BUT it's also not wholly accurate to describe them as aromantic/asexual, it's more complex than that

-you can never fully understand certain myths if you don't understand the societal context in which they were told

-myths have lots and lots of retellings, there isn't one singular "canon", but we can try to distinguish between older and newer versions and bewteen greek and roman versions

-most of what you know about sparta is probably incorrect

-reading/waching retellings is not a substitute to reading the original myths, read the iliad! read the odyssey! i know they may seem intimidating, but they're much more entertaining than you may think

greek mythology is so complex and interesting, don't go into it with preconcieved notions! try to be open to learn!

[omneco]

[moramew]

A small list of random ass sites I’ve found useful when writing:

Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics

Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 

This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters

A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly

McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it

A Glossary of Astronomy Terms: to pepper in that sweet terminology for your astrophysics major college au needs

[moramew]

Adding to this since I’m working on a shifter au one-shot:

Canine Body Language

Feline Body Language

[moramew]

More:

Cocktail Flow: a site with a variety of cocktails that’s pretty easy to navigate and offers photos of the drinks. You can sort by themes, strengths, type and base. My only real annoyance with this site is that the drinks are sometimes sorted into ~masculine~ and ~feminine~ but ehhhh. It’s great otherwise.

Tie-A-Tie: a site centered around ties, obviously. I stumbled upon it while researching tie fabrics but there’s a lot more to look at. It offers insight into dress code for events, tells you how to tie your ties, and has a section on the often forgotten about tie accessories

[moramew]

Even more:

Types of High Heels: A page describing twenty five different types of high heels. It gives a description and pictures. Shake it up from just “stilettos and kitten heels”

Random Job Generator: Exactly as it says. The site offer more generators like characters, plots, or town names.

Glossary of Hosiery Terms: Figure out what is what on a pair of stockings.

Men’s Dress Shoe Guide: A quick guide describing the eight most common types of men’s dress shoes. Pics included.

Types of Women’s Coats: Descriptions and pics of various different types of coats.

[8writingblock8-blog]

WRITING REFERENCES

[coldwind-shiningstars]

Earl Grey tea intoxication

A 44-year-old man presented in May, 2001, with muscle cramps. He had no medical history of note, but volunteered the fact that he had been d

Re: blorbo from my research, here is my favorite ever case study. I'm obsessed with it.

Summary:

- Guy presents to neurology with muscle issues, very clearly has something going on but diagnostic tests are inconclusive

- History is mostly unremarkable. Key word, mostly. He drinks four liters of plain Earl Grey tea per day. For context this is nearly twice the recommended daily fluid intake. All fluids, to be clear, not just tea. He only drinks tea tho

- Bergamot is known to be phototoxic in high doses (reacts badly on your skin with sunlight)

- APPARENTLY nobody previously has consumed enough of it for it to be widely known that it is also, apparently, mildly toxic to ingest in high doses

- Guy starts drinking plain black tea again. Only 2 liters this time (he didn't have a medical reason to drink that much tea, he just liked it) and so now he's fully recovered

[official-kircheis]

house md ass case

[kurra]

I'm Neil Josten now.

[lazuli-rises]

I knew what it was gonna be and still cried

[messygoku]

[messygoku]

ya empezaron con "memes that transcend languages" cuando son palabras obvias

[deepseecreature]

anglofonos cuando reconocen cognados: